My only whale watching tour was with a HAL excursion, late May 2013, in Juneau. We had a few sightings, but they weren’t much more than the whale breaking through the surface a bit, basically a lazy bobbing motion. It was not worth it. It was a fairly expensive excursion and thus an extremely poor value. Of course some people talked as if it was wonderful. It’s nice if they have no expectations, but I think some people would rather say their trip was awesome, amazing, etc. rather than share an honest evaluation.